Hammerfall were back on tour in the UK along with fellow Swedes Dream Evil. This was the same venue that just a couple of months ago also hosted power metal giants Edguy. Hammerfall therefore had a job on their hands to deliver something equally as spectacular.

British traditional heavy metallers Tribe kicked things off to an extremely generous audience. The band provided nothing new, nothing enjoyable and nothing memorable apart from the frontman's inability to sing very well. The band put on one of those sets were you give a generous applause but spend the whole time waiting for them to leave the stage.

Dream Evil on next however was a completely different story. These guys have enough experience between them to last a lifetime, and so inevitably had the audience eating from their hands from the get-go. The previous band hadn't warmed the audience up, so it did seem almost as if Dream Evil were the first band on. The band's setlist was created by the fans on their website, and so no one watching this set left disappointed. "The Chosen Ones" and in particular the audience's favourite "The Book Of Heavy Metal" caused a huge outburst of energy at the opportunity to scream the word "metal" as loudly as possible. The band seemed to be having a fun time on stage and duely noted the warm reception from the decently sized audience. Unfortunately the band's short set was soon up and the Nottingham crowd were left craving for more.

Setlist:
Immortal
United
Made Of Metal
Crusader's Anthem
Bang Your Head
The Chosen Ones
Chasing The Dragon
The Book Of Heavy Metal

The vast majority of the people here had of course made the journey for the headliners Hammerfall. An enthusiastic audience welcomed the band to the stage. Playing at such an intimate venue seemed almost like a test for the band who have been used to playing to larger audiences. Joacim predictably came out with the same old lines in between songs, but the audience who seemed to mostly be comprised of first-time Hammerfall show-goers, didn't seem to mind at all. The band delivered a convincing show of all the usual Hammerfall favourites in their traditional metal influenced power metal. The band certainly didn't have a job to get the audience on side, they were already there from the start. Nottingham seems to have a good Hammerfall following and these dedicated fans who ranged from your typical show-goer to a mother, father and daughter group, all had a blast. The show didn't quite have the same energy as the aforementioned Edguy show, but the band's fans left far from disappointed. A closing of "Let The Hammer Fall" and "Hearts On Fire" tipped the audience over the edge for the end of an enjoyable show. There would certainly be no complaints from this audience if the band were to return in the future.

An interview conducted with Pat Power of Dream Evil after their set can be found at this location.

2 Gotheburg band sin one tour, cool,
what was Hammerfall setlist? any older songs from early albums?

If the setlist was the same as when I saw them in Sheffield the night before, and the setlists people have posted for other shows of this tour (on setlist.fm, for example) suggest it probably is, they played The Dragon Lies Bleeding, Heeding The Call, Let The Hammer Fall and Stronger Than All from the first 2 albums.

Also, dunno if this would be considered "older" but they also played Renegade.